Defending Champion Paul Sidhu accomplished that most difficult
feat - the repeat - going undefeated to take home the "wood"
and a $60 merchandise certificate from MMP. Holdovers from last
year's top six grabbed places 3, 4, & 5: Kevin Valerien,
J.R. Tracy, and Jim Stahler, with perennial contender Ray Woloszyn
in 6th place - all with records of 4-3. Besides Paul, the only
other player not to suffer three losses was runner-up Gary Mei
at 6-1. Honorable mention to Scott Romanowksi, Bret Hildebran,
and Ken Mioduski all at 4-3 also.

The annual decline in attendance was halted this year, with
35 players participating for at least part of the event. Player
satisfaction seemed high again. No games had to be adjudicated
this year (always a plus) as a greater emphasis was placed on
keeping long scenarios out of the AM rounds and relegated only
to the PM rounds. For that matter, even in the PM rounds, players
mostly avoided the longer scenarios. Scenario balance worked
well, and players generally seemed happy with the scenario choices.
With ten choices per round (two columns of five scenarios), players
were better able to pick scenarios they wanted to play (rather
than avoiding scenarios they did not want to play). Part of the
cost involved with that, however, is a possible loss of focus
and a lessening of the communal experience, as many different
scenarios get played each round.

The first round saw most players avoiding the PTO column,
with the popular choice being "Will to Fight.Eradicated"-
an early war, German vs Polish, all-infantry classic. Significant
match-ups in this scenario saw Paul beating Ken Mioduski, and
Gary Mei beating Jim Stahler. Early war battles in Poland predominated
in the second round as well. All five of the scenarios in the
Polish column got some play, with "Round One" having
a slight edge. Gary Mei and Bret Hildebran both won with the
defending Poles in this One, while Kevin Valerien's risk-avoidance
techniques with his German AFVs led him to victory there. Meanwhile,
Paul's Poles in "Round Two" found themselves needing
to protect only half as much territory as expected when Bill
Stoppel's 150+mm OBA set much of the town on fire. "All
the other AFVs are incredibly shy. They dart into the street
to try smoke dischargers and then run to hide behind the buildings."
[Kevin Valerien]

The popular choice in the third round was "Cream of the
Crop." Important match-ups in this 1941 combined arms Russian
scenario included Paul defeating past champion Tom Morin, Gary
Mei taking out past champion Bret Hildebran, and Kevin Valerien
beating Scott Romanowski, all in close games. Not many games
were played from the Deluxe ASL column in this round, further
evidence of the lesser popularity of the big boards (even if
it is just to avoid needing to carry them to a tournament).
In the past, Deluxe scenarios have been sprinkled into columns
with regular scenarios, only to be avoided even more than when
segregated. I would be sad to see Deluxe scenarios banished from
the tourney, but the players have been voting with their feet
over the years. "Gary adjusted well to the attack and brought
his infantry over and played the KV aggressively-but 800-pound
gorillas can afford to be aggressive when playing against chimps."
[Bret Hildebran]

Round 4 saw the four remaining undefeated players engaged
in tight battles in the French-Thai combined arms battle "Siam
Sambal." J.R. Tracy and Kevin Valerien entered into their
first ever tournament game. Kevin's Legionnaires were valiant
and his FT-17s were bold (or was it vice versa?), but the Tracy-led
Siamese were tough to crack. Prisoners played an important role
in the outcome of this match, with guards deploying and prisoners
escaping at timely points, and guards who were too busy with
their prisoners to interdict a last-turn counterattack. Meanwhile,
fellow New Jersey residents ("What exit?") and regular
foes Paul and Gary were also duking it out in the groves and
fields of Indochina. Gary was eager to be playing his friend
the defending champion in a crucial round, but, true to form,
Paul eked out a victory with his intrepid French. Gary has made
tremendous gains in his game play over the past two years and
should be a force to be reckoned with in any future tournaments.
"I love playing Paul because he's so relentless. If you
have a weakness anywhere, you can bet he'll jump on it and make
you pay. I really have to be at my best to have a chance against
him." [Gary Mei]

Round 5 matched up the last two undefeated players, perennial
contender J.R. "always the bridesmaid" Tracy vs Paul
"defending Champ" Sidhu in a battle for the championship
and some relief. Not only would the winner of this round win
the entire event, but also he would avoid the pressure of having
to play in the next round. As customary, the last two undefeated
players got to pick any of the scenarios in the tournament. This
year I urged them to play something short, however, since the
loser would still have to play rounds 6 and 7. Paul and J.R.
accommodated me by choosing "Scobie Preserves" a short
Deluxe scenario featuring Indian ("British") 4-5-7s
with a Staghound and a Sherman who have to push away from the
road Greek Communist partisans with molotovs to use against the
AFVs and "scobie preserves" to use against the infantry
in close combat. This was a real back-and-forth nail-biter, with
great play on both sides marred only by an end-game realization
that a key line-of-sight they thought was blocked had been clear
all along. Mid-game saw J.R. withdraw an important force unscathed
from a dangerous close combat and scorch their erstwhile opponents
with Prep Fire, only to see a random sniper shot lay that force
low. In the end, Paul skillfully maneuvered his partisans in
for the kill and then got "hot" with his molotov attacks
for the win. Another "wood" for Paul's trophy case,
another near-miss for J.R. who would have to keep playing to
determine his final ranking.

Other important games this round included Gary Mei's French/Norwegian
win over Ray Woloszyn's Germans in the infantry-only "Triumph
Atop Taraldsvikfjell" and Kevin Valerien's narrow win as
the Marine Raiders over Bret Hildebran in "Bailey's Demise"
at the one-log bridge over the Matanikau from Operation Watchtower.
"Probably my favorite scenario out of OWT-great tourney
scenario and a real nail-biter." [Bret Hildebran]

Despite not having many turns, the championship match of "Scobie
Preserves" was tense down to the very end and didn't finish
until just before the start of Round 6. So it was understandable
that a tired and dispirited J.R. Tracy might want to take a forfeit
in round 6 and live to fight another day. Newly re-crowned Paul
Sidhu was another matter and he was ready for another game. I
knew past champ Bret didn't care where he placed, so I set him
up for a fun game with Paul and arranged the other matches for
Round 6. So when J.R. finally succumbed to my attacks on his
manhood and agreed to play another game, I had Bret in reserve
as an appropriate match. In retrospect I should be ashamed for
goading J.R. into this game. His Japanese attack vs Bret's Americans
was pushed home well and he gave Bret plenty to worry about,
but J.R.'s heart wasn't in it, his usual joie de jouer was missing,
but he did help his record marginally.

Meanwhile, Paul was put to good use schooling a relative beginner,
and Gary was pitted against Kevin in what would become (given
J.R.'s loss this round and subsequent events) the match for 2nd
place and a rematch from round 7 last year. Gary's attacking
Americans were stymied at first when their Pershing tank (the
"Ace in the Hole" of the scenario title) was knocked
out. Sometimes, however, a good, desperate plan will come together
with an improbable set of occurances and overcome the best of
situations. Thus it was that Gary pulled out a win against all
odds "Gary did a great job sticking with it and getting
good use out of all his units during the end game." [Kevin
Valerien] "My thanks to Kevin for being the most even tempered
and gracious person I could ever hope to play. He was completely
calm and a gentleman throughout the final turn as my hot dice
robbed him of a victory he richly deserved. The lesson is to
never give up a game unless you're mathematically eliminated."
[Gary Mei]

Round 7 Sunday morning is a bit of a blur. Kevin stayed home
(that 40-minute drive each way can be a killer, especially when
three young kids are vying for your attention), Bret left early,
and J.R. did the same. Paul and Scott Romanowski started a game
of Showdown in Syria that was fun but doomed to end unfinished,
while Gary took the opportunity to garner another conquest, this
time against Tom Ruta (fifth place last year) in "The T-Patchers."
I matched up those two grognards Jim Stahler and Ray Woloszyn,
with Jim climbing to 5th place by virtue of this victory.

A seven-way tie at 4-3 led
to a lot of tiebreakers being invoked. In retrospect I may have
bilked Bret out of a higher finish, but he had skipped the last
round and already left (and I knew he didn't much care). "Ninety
percent of life is just showing up." [Woody Allen]

Once again a good time was had by all, with good sportsmanship
evident throughout the tourney, and the quality of play better
than ever. "The competition was top notch." [Bret Hildebran]

Given that, it was with very mixed emotions that I had to
announce I cannot GM the ASL event in 2003. Taking over
ASL at DonCon from Russ Gifford has been a blast, and I have
been privileged to GM a great bunch of guys each year, but now
I have to devote more of my WBC time to other MMP things. Scott
Romanowski has agreed to take up the reins. Hopefully the fix
is in, and this is a done deal. Scott has assisted in the past,
is more organized than I am, and has more time to devote to the
tourney, so he should be able to help ASL continue to
regain some of the attendance it lost under my 6+1 "leadership."
"You need a write-up by when??"